AUSTRIAN ENERGY SECURITY AND ITS POSITION TOWARDS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

The paper deals with Austrian position towards deepening of integration in energy security area within the European Union. It utilizes theoretical approach based on three challenges of energy security (external, intra-EU and business challenges) to explore support or opposition towards the integration. The paper is based on 15 semi-structured interviews with Austrian senior officials as well as energy experts from think-tanks. The results support the claim that the rather neutral position of Austria towards deepening of integration in energy security area at the EU level is caused by the ability of the country to successfully deal with all three energy security challenges.